Tracking
by NessieCullen9
Summary: A semi-sequel to "How Can He Hold Her So Close". Jasper's POV while James is tracking Bella.
1. Tracking

**Tracking**

**Chapter 1: The Tracker**

Though it was four against one, soon to be seven on one, I kept my eyes trained on Laurent as we waited. Sure, I could feel the genuine guilt and unease coming from Laurent, but that didn't really change anything, in my eyes. This vampire and the coven he traveled here with had not only killed nearby, but they had tried to kill Bella. The other two, James and Victoria, were still trying to do just that. And, to make matters worse, James was a tracker. Laurent had confessed that much to us… _After_ James and Victoria had taken off, without him. I growled at the thought and Laurent flinched. He, now, stood in the center of our living room, surrounded by Carlisle, Rosalie, Esme, and myself. Carlisle shot me a warning look, but I ignored it. He didn't want me lashing out at Laurent, since he had surrendered, but I was in no mood to play nice. If Laurent had told us James' true intentions sooner, we could have contained him and Victoria before they ran off. We could have destroyed them, then and there. Laurent had been too cowardly to cross James, though, so James was back on Bella's trail. And Alice was with her… I growled, again. If any harm came to Bella or Alice, there would be hell to pay.

I heard the sound of two cars turning up the dirt drive and I let out the breath I had been unconsciously holding. Bella's truck was closest. The unmistakable roar of that iron monster could be heard from this distance by human ears. Emmett's Jeep was following close behind. Laurent's unease spiked as the sounds drew closer. He was already heavily outnumbered, and our numbers were about to double. I didn't feel one shred of pity for him. Not even a full second after the roar of Bella's truck cut off, Emmett barreled into the room, carrying Bella in his arms. Edward and Alice entered about a nanosecond behind, flanking Emmett. Emmett's eyes locked on Laurent and he growled as he set Bella down next to Edward.

"He's tracking us," Edward announced to the room, also glaring daggers at Laurent. The nomad shifted slightly under all the glares he was receiving and he frowned.

"I was afraid of that," he said. I almost growled, again, just hearing his voice, but I was distracted by Alice. She quickly came to my side, emitting strong waves of reassurance, trust, love, and protectiveness. Then, she quickly whispered in my ear:

"You and I are going to run Bella south, to Phoenix, while the others deal with James and Victoria, here. Bella told Charlie she's going back home. James overheard, of course, but Edward, Emmett, and Carlisle are going to lead him off on a false trail. Esme and Rosalie will do the same with Victoria. We'll stay with Bella for a few days, then Edward will come get her." I grabbed Alice's hand and ran upstairs with her while she was still saying that last sentence. I could hear Carlisle talking to Laurent as Alice and I ran into our room, but I tuned it out. I was sick of hearing that slimy nomad babble, and I had been issued my orders. I focused on my task.

"What, exactly, have you seen, Alice?" I asked her as we sped around our room, packing a few necessities into bags small enough to pass as carry-ons, on a plane.

"James won't try attacking, right away," she said. "He's waiting to see if we'll leave her alone. You and I will take Bella to Phoenix, to hide her. As soon as she's clear, Edward, Emmett, and Carlisle are going to hunt James. I'm not sure what Victoria will do, she hasn't decided, yet. Bella's father will be safe, though. Bella and Edward put on a pretty convincing farewell show for him, and Esme and Rosalie will protect him."

"You said the tracker overheard Bella telling Charlie she's going to Phoenix. Why are we taking her there?"

"Because, as Bella put it, 'he knew that we knew that he was listening, so he'll never believe she's actually going where she said she's going.'"

"_Bella_ came up with this plan?" I asked incredulously.

"Most of it, actually," Alice said, sounding very proud of Bella. "Edward, Emmett, and I were arguing over what to do, and her plan pretty much shut us all up." If the situation were not so serious, I was sure Alice would be laughing at the irony. I had to admit; I would be laughing, too. As much as I had been opposed to Edward bringing Bella into our lives, at first, the human girl was very quickly growing on me. She was such a brave, constant, perceptive little thing. A fierce fire flared in my chest, and it had nothing to do with thirst. I would be in very close quarters with this human and her luscious scent, but I would be okay. I cared for her too much. She was part of my family, now, and I let no one harm my family. No one.

It was as I was thinking about that, of course, that I was hit by a wave of baleful fury from downstairs. For me to pick up on it from this distance, it had to be very strong. The worst part was; I had a feeling I knew who it was coming from. I focused on the voices downstairs, again, and, sure enough, I heard Rosalie hiss.

"Why should I? What is she to me? Except a menace; a danger you've chosen to inflict on all of us." Apparently, she was speaking to Edward. I braced myself for another wave of fury, expecting Edward to retaliate, but the fury didn't come.

"Esme?" He asked calmly.

"Of course," Esme responded. Not two seconds later, Esme ran past me and Alice, carrying Bella.

"Trading clothes, to confuse the scent," Alice murmured. I nodded once, before I felt waves of anger flooding up from downstairs, again.

"Wait for Esme and Bella," I told Alice. "I'm going down there." Alice nodded and I ran downstairs.

"This is why we told you to stay away from her, Edward!" Rosalie was hissing at Edward, again, when I got to them. She almost seemed to be deliberately trying to provoke him. He was still unresponsive to her tantrum. He wasn't getting angry. It only took me a moment to realize why. Love, shame, worry, love, self-loathing, anxiety, love… Of course. He was far too busy worrying about Bella and blaming himself for getting her into this mess to bother with Rosalie. I sent a wave of calm through the room first, concentrating most of it on Rosalie. Then, I focused on Edward and added encouragement and pride to the mix. Those feelings were the opposites of the shame he was feeling, and I hoped all that self-hatred would be drowned out. He looked up at me and shook his head.

"Don't bother, Jasper," he said. Rosalie shot a glare at me, but I ignored her, too. _Edward, this isn't your fault. Stop beating yourself up. Bella was having fun in that clearing, watching us play. She finally felt like she was really being included in the family. She wasn't feeling that way, when you brought her here, earlier. She was happy earlier, but she still felt unwanted and unworthy. She's still feeling some of that, now, but it's better. She just wants to feel like she belongs in our family, and she does. She does belong in our family, Edward. Rosalie is just being Rosalie, but the rest of us wouldn't have it any other way. Just feel this! _I thought back to what I was feeling about Bella before Rosalie first went off: The pride, the protectiveness, the appreciation, and the continually growing love. I let it all fill me up again, then I threw it at Edward as hard as I knew how. He blinked and staggered a step back.

"And that's just me," I said aloud. "I would feed you what I've been picking up from everyone else, all at once, but now really isn't the best time to overwhelm you that way."

"What's going on?" Emmett asked, coming into the room wearing a large backpack. Carlisle came in behind him with a few cell phones in hand. Emmett was looking warily between me, Rosalie, and Edward. After a moment of contemplation, he went over to Rosalie and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Rose?"

"It's nothing, Emmett," Edward cut in, before Rosalie could start, again. Then, Edward turned to Carlisle. "Is everything ready?"

"Yes," Carlisle answered just as Alice and Esme came down the stairs with Bella. Bella looked as though everything that was happening was finally catching up to her; becoming real. Her haggard appearance was only made worse by the way Esme's clothes hung loosely on her body. Her own clothes were very close-fitted on Esme. I sampled the emotions coming off Bella while Carlisle handed out the cell phones he was carrying:

"Esme and Rosalie will be taking your truck, Bella," Carlisle told her as he passed. Bella automatically looked at Rosalie. Hurt, worthlessness, concern. "Alice, Jasper, take the Mercedes. You'll need the dark tint in the south." Bella looked at me and Alice while we nodded to Carlisle. Awe, concern, anxiety, worthlessness, gratitude. Bella's eyes flickered between Carlisle, Emmett, and Edward, and a new string of emotions surged forward: Surprise, concern, anxiety, and the strongest wave of fear I had felt from her, yet. She was more concerned about them than herself. Worthlessness. This girl was unbelievable.

"Alice," Carlisle asked, "will they take the bait?" Alice closed her eyes and became perfectly still, completely focused on her visions.

"He'll track you," Alice said, when she opened her eyes. "The woman will follow the truck. We should be able to leave after that." She was certain. We could all tell.

"Let's go," Carlisle said, but I felt a sudden explosion of desperate love in the room. Edward darted to Bella's side and pulled her clean off the ground, holding her to him while he kissed her. Bella's feet were dangling in the air, but that didn't stop her from kissing Edward back with the same desperate fire. For those few seconds, we all stared at Edward and Bella. Well, all of us but Rosalie. She turned away with a disgusted look on her face. All the rest of us were completely engrossed, though. It was truly a private moment, but none off us could look away. For those few seconds, none of us saw a vampire kissing a human. We saw our brother kissing our sister, or, in Carlisle and Esme's case, their son kissing their daughter. There was no going back, now. Human or not, Bella was one of us.

Then, it was over. Edward set Bella back on her feet, while keeping a hand on her face. He stared down at her for another second, and then he turned away. The feeling was excruciating. Edward and Bella both let loose devastating waves of love, longing, devotion, and pain. True pain. Separating like this was not just emotionally, but physically painful for them, as well. Edward turned away and ran out the door with Carlisle and Emmett, and the emotions coming from Bella worsened threefold: Love, longing, devotion, pain, sadness, fear, anxiety, horror, worthlessness… It was awful. She started crying heavily, though almost silently, and I had to look away, as did Alice and Esme. It was painful to watch and it felt too private.

Esme's phone vibrated, then, and she brought it quickly to her ear. "Now," she said. Rosalie stalked out the door grudgingly, but Esme paused by Bella, on her way out, lightly touching the girl's tear-stained cheek. "Be safe," She whispered to Bella. Then, she was gone, too. Bella's truck roared to life outside and sped away as fast as it would go. Six seconds later, Alice brought her phone to her ear even before it began to buzz.

"Edward says the woman is on Esme's trail. I'll get the car." She darted out the kitchen door, then, leaving me alone with Bella. I was standing across the room from Bella. The emotions flowing out of her instinctively made me want to move closer to her. It was a very human instinct, and it surprised me a little. I thought of my thirst, though, and I stayed where I was. I would be very close to her in the coming few days. Best not to push my limits too much, now. She looked at me, though, and I couldn't do nothing. Even if I couldn't feel her emotions, her eyes said it all. Those brown pools of emotion were surely what kept Edward sane, since he couldn't hear her thoughts. They made her thoughts pretty clear.

"You're wrong, you know," I told her quietly.

"What?" She gasped. Surprise, confusion, alarm, shyness, anxiety, worthlessness… My point, exactly.

"I can feel what you're feeling, now and you _are_ worth it."

"I'm not," she mumbled. "If anything happens to them, it will be for nothing."

"You're wrong," I repeated, smiling at her. Such a constant little thing. Alice reappeared, then, and she walked towards Bella, arms outstretched.

"May I?" She asked. Leave it to my sweet little Alice to ask, when half of our family had snatched up and carried Bella, by now, all without so much as a word of warning.

"You're the first one to ask permission," Bella responded wryly. I never thought I'd hear a human speak so calmly about vampires passing her around like a rag doll. This girl was definitely worth it.

The following drive was painful. Alice sat in the back seat with Bella for a large part of the drive. For the first few hours, she just tried to comfort Bella while she cried. Eventually, Bella's head ended up against Alice's neck, as she cried all her pain out, until her eyes finally ran dry. Bella was exhausted, by then, and I tried to send her waves of lethargy, to put her to sleep. She sat up ramrod straight, in response, and practically begged me not to put her to sleep. She told me that, if she slept, she would dream about things she didn't want to think about. I felt the fear and unease coming off her as she gave me that explanation, so I didn't press the issue, nor did Alice. So, Bella stayed up all night, and most of the following day. I was driving at least triple the speed limit, all the way to Phoenix, so we made the journey in less than twenty-four hours, and Bella didn't sleep at all.

Our plan was to find a hotel near the airport, just in case we had to make a quick escape, faster than we could run or drive. I didn't really know where to begin looking, though, and Bella was the only one I could ask for directions. Pulling over to ask someone else was out of the question. It was too sunny out. I held in a sigh of frustration. I hated the south. I was wary of asking anything of Bella, though. Not only had she been awake for about forty straight hours, but I had been unable to detect any strong emotions from her in a while. She had gone somewhat numb and apathetic. A human coping mechanism, I guessed. She really was holding up amazingly well, all things considered. The fact remained, though: I had no other option.

"Which way to the airport, Bella?" I asked as softly as I could, while still remaining audible to her ears. I saw Bella flinch, in the rear-view mirror, and I felt a jolt of alarm fire out of her, before her emotions settled, again.

"Stay on the I-ten," she answered quickly. "We'll pass right by it." Her apathy faded a little and I could feel more emotion coming form her in the following seconds: Disorientation and confusion, mainly.

"Are we flying somewhere?" She asked wearily.

"No," Alice answered her. She was sitting in the front of the car, with me, at this point. "But it's better to be close, just in case."

Apparently, the little amount of energy Bella used to speak to us was the last of her supply. Moments after I began driving the loop around Sky Harbor International, she finally fell asleep. About five minutes later, I found a Hilton adjacent to the airport parking lot. I pulled completely into the shade in front of the hotel, before getting out of the car to deal with the valets and bellhops. I checked the three of us in while Alice helped Bella walk through the lobby, holding up as much of Bella's weight as she could without completely carrying her. That sight would not go over well with the humans in the hotel. Alice was too small for that. Once we were in our room, with the door safely closed and locked behind us, Alice lifted Bella completely into her arms and carried her to one of the two bedrooms in the suite. Alice and I, of course, didn't really need a room, as we didn't sleep, but we had to keep up appearances. While Alice tucked Bella into bed, I went around the suite and closed all the curtains, blocking out the sunlight.

Alice came up behind me when I was putting the 'do not disturb' sign on the door to our suite. When I closed the door and turned to face her, she looked morose. She wrapped her thin arms around my waist laid her cheek against my chest. "What's wrong, Alice?" I asked her softly, rubbing her back soothingly and sending calming waves into her.

"Why doesn't Edward want her changed?" She asked me. The question was rhetorical. She knew why Edward did not want to change Bella into a vampire. He had told her many times over, during their recent arguments over her visions of Bella. "The physical toll these last two days have taken on her…" Alice continued softly. "She's exhausted, she's hungry, her eyes are going to be puffy and red for at least a day or two, between her lack of sleep and her crying… She doesn't have to be in this condition."

"Honestly, I'm not sure I can agree with that," I said, pulling Alice over to the couch and sitting down with her on my lap. "I mean, I do agree that he should change Bella. I just know that she, unfortunately, _does_ need to stay as she is, right now. We can't properly care for and a newborn vampire while we're dealing with this tracker. You know that." At the mention of newborns, Alice automatically reached up to lightly trace her fingers along some of the bite scars on my neck. The marks of my past which were virtually invisible to Bella's human eyes, but clearly evident with our sharper vision.

"Is it difficult for you?" Alice asked me. "Being in the south, again?"

"I won't say I haven't thought about it," I answered honestly, "but it's not that bad. Texas, New Mexico, Mexico… Those are the areas where most of the memories are. Arizona is a little more tolerable, though close."

"Edward…" The low whimper came from the room where Bella slept, as did a strong wave of both love and fear. I thought she'd already awoken, but Alice reached up and ran her fingers through my hair.

"Edward told us she talks in her sleep, remember?" She asked. I nodded. Several weeks ago, our family had pulled Edward aside, to ask him why he was spending every night at Bella's house. His explanation was that he liked to watch Bella sleep. He found it fascinating. He told us she talked in her sleep. Quite a bit, actually. He mentioned how she tossed and turned a lot, especially when she seemed to be having a particularly bad dream. He just enjoyed watching the nightly show.

"Edward… Edward!"

Rosalie might be interested to know what a narcissist Edward is. She might have some competition.

"No, Edward! Don't!" Waves of love and fear continued to flow from Bella's room and I shifted under Alice. I felt like I needed to go calm Bella down.

"Just wait," Alice whispered, still running her fingers through my hair and tracing some of my scars. "Edward said it stops after a while, when she falls into deeper sleep."

"It's not just what she's saying, Alice," I said. "It's what she's _feeling_. I didn't know humans could put off that kind of emotion while asleep. It's almost as strong as when she's awake."

"Just wait," Alice whispered, again.

"Laurent said you can't… Stop… Come back... Leave Edward alone, Rosalie… Esme… Carlisle… Emmett… Alice… Jasper… Stop… I'm not worth it…"

"Why does she keep thinking that?!" I said exasperatedly. "Edward and I have both, quite plainly told her… She's so stubborn." Alice giggled softly at my reaction.

"I told you you'd grow to love her," she said softly.

"At least she stands up to Rosalie, in her sleep," I commented. Alice giggled, again.

"Leave Alice alone… Stop it! Stay away from her! Alice! Please… Where's Jasper… Leave her alone… James… Alice!"

Bella was trying to protect Alice, in her dream! There was no way I could not love that girl, now. A human feeling protective of a vampire _was_ a little backwards, but it was so incredibly sweet. Bella loved Alice, so I loved Bella. That was that.

"Edward… Edward… Edward! NO! EDWARD! HELP! THE FIRE! NO! No, no, no, no, NO! Edward!" Alice and I both jumped up in alarm. I was almost knocked right back down by the wave of emotion that hit me, though: Pure horror. Terror and devastating sadness. "The fire! EDWARD!" Bella had not felt the burn of vampire venom, so there was only one reason she could be screaming about fire, in her sleep. She _did_ know what had to be done to kill a vampire. She was dreaming that Edward was burning. In pieces, and burning.

I ran into Bella's room and Alice made no move to stop me, this time. She followed close behind. The second I had the door open, I threw one wave after another of calm and lethargy at Bella. I moved closer when she still continued to whimper softly and I carefully laid my hand on her arm. I poured calm, peace, and lethargy into her, where my cold hand touched her warm skin. Her heartbeat, which had been pounding violently inside her, quickly returned to its normal, steady rate. She did not stir, and she did not speak. I pulled my hand back from her arm and stepped away from the bed. I hadn't realized it until this point, but Bella's racing pulse had saturated the air in the room with her sweet, adrenaline spiked scent. I held my breath and rushed out of the room. Alice followed right behind me, shutting the bedroom door behind her. I pulled one of the windows in the room open for a moment, breathing in the fresh, though warm air. The sun was setting and the ruby light glinted off my skin, but I wasn't too worried. There was no one around to see it.

"It's okay, Jazz," Alice whispered, walking over to me and sitting on the thick windowsill. Her skin also sparkled, but she, like me, wasn't too concerned about that, just now. "You weren't going to hurt her. You were in control." I took one more gulp of fresh air and pulled the window shut, closing the curtain, again.

"I know I was," I said. "I was too worried about Bella for my thirst to bother me too much. I just wasn't prepared to smell her scent quite so strongly in there. She's never been that scared around us. The adrenaline made it so much worse."

"She was dreaming that Edward was burning…" Alice said sadly.

"I know."

"She was dreaming about me, before that…"

"I know," I said, again, with more feeling. "If Edward does decide to change her, she's going to be a fierce little thing. If she's that devoted and protective in her _sleep_…"

"I know," Alice said. She sounded happy, again. I smiled down at her. She liked talking about Bella like this; like a true sister. We moved back to the couch and I hugged Alice close. She stretched her neck up to kiss me, lightly at first, then with growing passion. I responded with even greater enthusiasm. After two days of feeling so much anger and sadness, I was desperately craving love and happiness. Alice gladly helped me quench _that_ thirst, while Bella remained quiet well into the night.


	2. Visions

**Tracking**

**Chapter 2: Visions**

It was about three in the morning when Alice and I heard Bella stir and awake. Alice had ordered some food for Bella a little while ago, seeing that she would wake up soon. The tray of food was already set out on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Alice and I were seated, together, on the couch. Alice leaned in and lightly kissed a prominent scar or my neck.

"I'll go check on her," she whispered to me. "She's going to be worried about the others. They still haven't called, so I'm not sure what to tell her…Turn on the TV, okay? It's a little more human. It will make Bella more comfortable." I nodded and Alice flitted over to Bella's room. She tapped the door lightly and I heard Bella jump, from inside.

"Can I come in?" Alice asked her. I heard Bella take a deep breath before she responded.

"Sure." When Alice walked into Bella's room, I picked up the TV remote and moved to sit at the small desk in the corner of the room. After what happened last night, I thought it best to distance myself from Bella a little. At first, if nothing else. It would probably make her a little more comfortable, too. I turned the TV on at a low volume and quickly scanned the available channels until I found a local news station. That was the best connection to the human world Bella could be given, for now.

"You look like you could sleep longer," I heard Alice tell Bella. No surprise, there. Then, I heard the rustle of window curtains.

"We'll need to stay inside," Alice told Bella.

"Okay." Bella's voice was hoarse and it cracked when she spoke.

"Thirsty?" Alice asked her.

"I'm okay. How about you?" I smiled involuntarily. Still more concerned about us than herself.

"Nothing unmanageable," Alice said. "I ordered some food for you. It's in the front room. Edward reminded me that you have to eat a lot more frequently than we do." I heard Bella's heart skip a beat.

"He called?" She asked anxiously.

"No," Alice answered. I was hit with a wave of dejectedness that surely came from Bella. "It was before we left," Alice added. Alice brought Bella into the room, then, and I kept my eyes on the TV, though not really watching it. Alice sat on the arm of the sofa while Bella sat on the floor, to eat her food. As Alice had expected, Bella was worried. Though I didn't look directly at her, I could see her looking between me and Alice through my peripheral vision. She ate slowly, even for a human. With each pass that her gaze made over me and Alice, she grew more anxious. Soon, I felt suspicion roll off of her, then more unease. She pushed her tray of food away, then. Alice and I both turned to look at her. She was looking up at Alice.

"What's wrong, Alice?" She asked.

"Nothing's wrong," Alice said innocently. Bella didn't believe her for a second. Her suspicion and anxiety flared.

"What do we do, now?" She demanded.

"We wait for Carlisle to call."

"And should he have called by now?" Bella pressed. Alice's calm façade faltered, then. Her eyes flickered over to the phone on top of her leather bag, then back to Bella.

"What does that mean?" Bella asked, her voice quavering with her anxiety. She controlled her voice a little more when she spoke again. "That he hasn't called, yet?" Her voice was more controlled, but her emotions weren't. Bella was truly frightened, now. Did she think that Carlisle not calling meant that they'd lost James?

"It just means that they don't have anything to tell us," Alice said evenly. Again, Bella didn't believe her. Her heart rate accelerated at Alice's words and her breathing became shallow. I didn't need my gift to know that Bella was very afraid. The adrenaline coursing through her amplified her scent, and I darted over to her, sitting beside Alice on the sofa.

"Bella, you have nothing to worry about," I said while sending calming waves to her. "You are completely safe, here."

"I know that," she responded. That confused me a little. If she wasn't afraid of the tracker finding her, here…

"Then why are you frightened?" I asked her.

"You heard what Laurent said," Bella whispered fearfully. Wait a minute. She'd said something like that in her sleep. "He said James was lethal. What if something goes wrong, and they get separated?" Oh, no. It wasn't just in her dreams that she was terrified of any of us getting hurt. She really felt that way. Bella's voice moved up through almost an entire octave as she continued: "If something happens to any of them, Carlisle, Emmett… Edward…" Bella gulped. Fear, anxiety, worry, self-hatred, despair, and guilt were pounding into me as Bella continued speaking. She was feeling utterly worthless and imposing, again. A note of hysteria began seeping into her voice. "If that wild female hurts Esme… How could I live with myself when it's my fault? None of you should be risking yourselves for me... "

"Bella, Bella, stop," I interrupted quickly. Probably a little too quickly for her, truth be told, but I had to stop her. I had to calm her down. "You're worrying about all the wrong things, Bella. Trust me on this; none of us are in jeopardy. You are under too much strain as it is. Don't add to it with wholly unnecessary worries." Bella's utter disbelief of my words slapped me in the face and she looked away. I resisted the urge to growl in frustration. "Listen to me!" I ordered as though I was speaking to an army of newborns, again. When Bella's eyes snapped back to mine in alarm, I reigned in my tone, again. "Our family is strong. Our only fear is losing you."

"But why should you..." Alice intervened, then, and I focused on claming Bella with my gift. Alice touched Bella's cheek lovingly, speaking to her little sister in kind tones.

"It's been almost a century that Edward's been alone," she told Bella. "Now he's found you. You can't see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you?" Bella's guilt eased slightly, on its own, but I still focused waves of calm and ease into her. I refused to let up for several minutes. Bella was still wearing Esme's clothes, though, and she went into the bathroom after a few minutes, to shower and change clothes.

When Bella came back out, she seemed a little wary of me, though not in a fearful way. I guessed that her wariness had more to do with my gift and how I had been manipulating her with it, recently. My suspicions were confirmed when I sensed her struggling to control her emotions, herself, so as not to tempt my assistance. She wasn't able to contain herself entirely, though. She fidgeted a lot, and she paced around the room a few times. After four laps around the room, I hit her with just enough lethargy to make her stop and settle on the couch. She didn't even look my way, though, so I doubted she noticed my hand in that. Not at first, anyway.

A few hours passed, and I started to feel some mild irritation from Bella, every time she looked my way. I completely understood that. Having your own emotions at the mercy of someone else all the time did tend to get irritating, sometimes. I would know. Though Bella really wasn't all that tired she went back to bed at about three o'clock in the afternoon, probably trying to move out of reach of my gift, more than anything. I let her go, but Alice followed her into the bedroom. There was a few minutes of near silence, save for the sound of Bella shifting around on the bed. Then, she spoke:

"Alice?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think they're doing?" I was surprised and impressed by how calmly Bella spoke. She was keeping herself very controlled.

"Carlisle wanted to lead the tracker as far north as possible, wait for him to get close, and then turn and ambush him." Alice explained. "Esme and Rosalie were supposed to head west as long as they could keep the female behind them. If she turned around, they were to head back to Forks and keep an eye on your dad. So I imagine things are going well if they can't call. It means the tracker is close enough that they don't want him to overhear."

"And Esme?" Bella pressed.

"I think she must be back in Forks. She won't call if there's any chance the female will overhear. I expect they're all just being very careful."

"Do you think they're safe, really?" Bella really is incorrigible.

"Bella, how many times do we have to tell you that there's no danger to us?" Alice said exasperatedly.

"Would you tell me the truth, though?" Uh-oh. Tread carefully, Alice.

"Yes. I will always tell you the truth." Alice's voice was earnest. I had a feeling she'd just backed herself into a corner. Backing up my theory was the long pause that followed. Bella was about to test Alice's word.

"Tell me then… How do you become a vampire?" Checkmate. Straight to the question Edward didn't want answered for Bella. Alice didn't answer right away. I felt a little unease and a hint of irritation come from the bedroom, and I knew it wasn't coming from Bella.

"Edward doesn't want me to tell you that," Alice replied firmly, but even human ears could tell from her tone that she didn't agree.

"That's not fair," Bella said, some belligerence and conviction returning to her tone. "I think I have a right to know." I knew, then, that Alice was going to cave and tell Bella the truth. I wasn't going to stop her, either. Though I did worry about Edward's reaction, I agreed with Alice on this one. Bella _did_ have a right to know.

"I know," Alice replied softly. There was a pause and Alice sighed.

"He'll be _extremely _angry."

"It's none of his business," Bella said firmly. "This is between you and me. Alice, as a friend, I'm begging you." Ouch. Nice one, Bella. Alice won't be able to resist that. Here it comes…

"I'll tell you the mechanics of it, but I don't remember it, myself, and I've never done it or seen it done, so keep in mind that I can only tell you the theory." I winced. Alice's inability to remember her transformation was both a gift and a curse. She didn't remember anything of her human life, at all. She also didn't have to remember the incredible pain of transformation, though. I hissed involuntarily. I remembered mine very clearly. I remembered Maria… I shuddered. I had seen it done to others, too, though I never had the control to do it, myself. I had seen it done many times…

"As predators, we have a glut of weapons in our physical arsenal," Alice continued in the other room, "much, much more than really necessary. The strength, the speed, the acute senses, not to mention those of us like Edward, Jasper, and I, who have extra senses as well. And then, like a carnivorous flower, we are physically attractive to our prey.

"We have another fairly superfluous weapon. We're also venomous. The venom doesn't kill. It's merely incapacitating. It works slowly, spreading through the bloodstream, so that, once bitten, our prey is in too much physical pain to escape us. Mostly superfluous, as I said. If we're that close, the prey doesn't escape. Of course, there are always exceptions. Carlisle, for example."

"So… If the venom is left to spread…" Bella murmured. She caught on quickly.

"It takes a few days for the transformation to be complete, depending on how much venom is in the bloodstream, how close the venom enters to the heart. As long as the heart keeps beating, the poison spreads, healing, changing the body as it moves through it. Eventually the heart stops, and the conversion is finished. But all that time, every minute of it, a victim would be wishing for death." I could hear Bella's heart racing, and I could faintly hear her shiver at Alice's description. At least the girl was capable of _some_ rational responses. "It's not pleasant, you see," Alice commented.

"Edward said that it was very hard to do…" Bella said softly. "I don't quite understand." That made sense. Perhaps Bella was so comfortable around us because she really didn't understand just how much our blood lust can control us, especially in cases such as mine.

"We're also like sharks in a way," Alice explained. "Once we taste the blood, or even smell it for that matter, it becomes very hard to keep from feeding. Sometimes impossible. So you see, to actually bite someone, to taste the blood, it would begin the frenzy. It's difficult on both sides. The blood lust on the one hand, the awful pain on the other." Bella remained amazingly calm and compassionate when she spoke to Alice, again:

"Why do you think you don't remember?" Don't we all wish we knew that, Bella…

"I don't know," Alice answered her. "For everyone else, the pain of transformation is the sharpest memory they have of their human life. I remember nothing of being human." Alice's voice was wistful, and it tore at my still heart. There was a long pause. Several minutes of silence before everything changed.

I felt a wave of fear and worry hit me, and I heard Alice leap to her feet. "Something's changed," she said. I heard her moving towards the bedroom door, but I got there first. Alice's eyes were glazed over when I flung the door open in my haste to reach her. I gripped her delicate shoulders gently and guided her back to the bed, helping her sit on the edge. Bella was on her knees on the bed, her eyes wide and her heart racing. She crawled closer while I addressed Alice:

"What do you see?" I asked her. Bella leaned in close, so she could hear the answer, too. I held my breath.

"I see a room. It's long, and there are mirrors everywhere. The floor is wooden. He's in the room, and he's waiting. There's gold… A gold stripe across the mirrors."

"Where is the room?" I asked Alice with little breath. I was used to working with Alice like this, helping her process her visions. The human in the room was the only thing I was unaccustomed to.

"I don't know. Something is missing... Another decision hasn't been made, yet."

"How much time?"

"It's soon. He'll be in the mirror room today or, maybe, tomorrow. It all depends. He's waiting for something. And he's in the dark, now."

"What is he doing?" I asked.

"He's watching TV… No, he's running a VCR, in the dark, in another place."

"Can you see where he is?" I was starting to run out of air, at this point.

"No, it's too dark." Bella's heart was still racing, but I noticed the suspense was making her hold her breath, too. That helped a little. I took in a little air, myself. My throat burned, but it wasn't too bad. I was too focused on Alice, at the moment. I allowed myself to breathe freely.

"And the mirror room, what else is there?" I asked Alice.

"Just the mirrors and the gold. It's a band, around the room. And there's a black table with a big stereo, and a TV. He's touching the VCR there, but he doesn't watch the way he does in the dark room, where he waits." Alice's eyes focused on my face, then, as she came out of the vision.

"There's nothing else?" I asked. Alice shook her head. I could feel her worry and frustration and I tried to calm her.

"What does it mean?" Bella asked us. He voice quavered ever so slightly with her fear and anxiety. Alice's worry intensified, but she kept it from showing on her face. She was worried about Bella, now, though she didn't want Bella to know that. I sent another calming wave into her and I answered Bella, myself, finally turning to look at her directly. She was a little paler than usual.

"It means the tracker's plans have changed," I told her. "He's made a decision that will lead him to the mirror room, and the dark room."

"But we don't know where those rooms are?" Bella asked me.

"No."

"But we do know he won't be in the mountains north of Washington, being hunted," Alice added bleakly. "He'll elude them."

"Should we call?" Bella asked us anxiously. Alice and I looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Then, the phone rang. Alice darted over to it and Bella blinked a few times, thrown off by the sudden quick movement.

Alice answered the phone, but didn't speak for a moment. Then, she began, "Carlisle." Relief flooded out of Bella with staggering force. I took advantage of the supply, absorbing it and throwing some of it at Alice, to help her keep a calm face, in front of Bella. Alice paused, again. "Yes." Her eyes moved to Bella as she listened for another long moment. "I just saw him," she said, then, and she proceeded to explain her vision to Carlisle. "Whatever made him get on that plane… It was leading him to those rooms." The tracker got on a plane? Where was he flying? "Yes," Alice said. Then, she held out the phone for Bella. "Bella?" without a moment's pause, Bella ran over.

"Hello?" She breathed anxiously into the phone. "Oh, Edward! I was so worried." Relief and love gushed out of her every pore. I lapped some of it up, again, just for the feel of it, but then Alice came back over to me. She was very worried, again.

"What happened, Alice?" I asked her too low and fast for Bella to hear.

"They're outside of Vancouver, now," she said, also speaking too quickly for Bella to understand. "The tracker was following them through the mountains for a while, but then he seemed to get suspicious. He started following farther behind, putting more distance between himself, Edward, Emmett, and Carlisle. After that point, he was almost always out of range of Edward's gift, so it was difficult to tell what he was thinking. At one point, early this morning, though… Edward heard some of his thoughts, again…"

She was coming up to what had her so worried. I could feel it. In fact, she wasn't just worried, she was a little fearful. I automatically stepped closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, reacting protectively. "What did Edward hear, Alice? What's wrong?"

"The tracker was thinking about me," she said. I hadn't seen that one coming. I scarcely managed to keep myself from growling, trying not to scare Bella while she continued speaking to Edward. He was surely not confessing _this_ detail to her.

"_What_ was he thinking about you, Alice?" I hissed, struggling to contain the anger bubbling up in me and not project it out into the room.

"He started wondering if Bella was with Edward, after all. Then, his mind just went straight to me, for some reason. Edward wasn't able to catch all of it. James was on the perimeter of his gift, so he only caught bits and pieces. The tracker thought of when he first came into that field with Laurent and Victoria. He recognized me right away, Jasper. He knew who I was, but, I swear, I can't ever remember seeing him in person, before. He kept having thoughts about me and Bella, at the same time, then… And some other human he hunted a long time ago. He kept thinking of their scent, then he would compare it to Bella's. He thought the other human smelled a little better. That was when called Victoria and he asked her where the rest of us had gone…"

"Did Edward hear what Victoria told him?" I asked intently. I couldn't understand how this tracker knew Alice, but it had me on edge. If he was thinking of trying to harm Alice, as well as Bella, I would tear him into so many pieces that burning him would be unnecessary, though I would still do that, of course.

"No," Alice said, frustration weaving throughout the worry coming off of her. "I haven't seen anything to do with that, either."

"Do they think that's why he got on the plane? Do they think he suspects that Bella is with you?" I asked. "Could that have been what changed?"

"I don't know," Alice said, "nor do they. Victoria, though… She's been doing some digging around Forks. She went all over town, to the school, back to Bella's house... It's difficult to know what information she might be feeding James. Carlisle thinks he decided to fly back to Forks and start over, with Victoria. They can't be sure, though."

"So, all we have is the mirror room and the dark room?" Alice nodded. I pulled her over to the coffee table and grabbed a pencil and a notepad for her. "Draw it, Alice. I want to see it, myself." Alice nodded again and started drawing the room with all the mirrors.

"Yes, I can, actually," I heard Bella say. "I'll be waiting." I heard her set the phone down and come up behind where Alice and I sat. She stood behind us and leaned into the back of the couch, looking over Alice's shoulder at the room she was drawing. The picture was, so far, unfamiliar to me. It was long and rectangular. It had floor-to-ceiling mirrors on all the walls. And there was a long band going around the room, just in front of all the mirrors…

"It's a ballet studio," Bella said suddenly. Oh, no. Bella recognized the room. What had the tracker found out? Cold, protective, vengeful fury rose up in me, again. Alice and I turned to look at Bella.

"Do you know this room?" I asked her, keeping my voice calm. Alice turned back to her work and finished her drawing with speed that would register as a blur in Bella's eyes. I didn't take my eyes off Bella. I watched her telling face for any flicker of reaction and kept my gift sharply trained on her. Confusion, interest, recognition, embarrassment, irritation, fear. I was somewhat reminded of how she had felt when she first saw Edward's piano, back home. Piano, ballet…

"It looks like the place I used to go for dance lessons when I was eight or nine," Bella said. "It was shaped just the same." Lessons. Of course. Piano and ballet lessons that Bella, clearly, didn't enjoy. She felt embarrassed and irritated when she thought of them. That made sense. I remembered Edward saying something about Bella only living in Forks up until she was about four years old, though. That meant she was living here in Phoenix when she was eight. That wasn't good. Bella came around the couch, then, and knelt on the floor in front of Alice, looking at her drawing closely. She touched the page where a square section jutted out in the back of the room, narrowing the space there.

"That's where the bathrooms were," she said. Her finger continued roaming the page as she continued. "The doors were through the other dance floor, but the stereo was here. It was older, and there wasn't a TV. There was a window in the waiting room. You would see the room from this perspective if you looked through it." Bella looked back up at me and Alice, then, and she shifted uncomfortably when she saw how carefully we were each watching her.

"Are you sure it's the same room?" I asked her, fighting a little harder to keep my voice calm and casual.

"No, not at all. I suppose most dance studios would look the same; the mirrors, the bar." Bella traced the long band in front of the mirrors with her finger while she added, "It's just the shape that looked familiar." Her finger stopped over the doors again, and she tapped them sharply. Something about the emotions coming off her felt distinctly reminiscent. She was absorbed in her childhood memories as she gazed at the picture. That was a bad sign. It emphasized just how familiar the place was to her. It could very likely be the same room she was remembering.

"Would you have any reason to go there, now?" Alice asked her. The emotions coming from Alice told me that, if Bella answered yes, she intended to physically hold Bella down until Edward came and got her.

"No, I haven't been there in almost ten years. I was a terrible dancer. They always put me in back for recitals."

"So there's no way it could be connected with you?" Alice asked intently.

"No, I don't even think the same person owns it," Bella said. As perceptive as she usually was, I was a little surprised by the fact that she was still relatively calm. I could feel that she was a little suspicious, probably of how casually Alice and I were speaking with her. She wasn't completely buying it. She wasn't feeling very afraid, though. "I'm sure it's just another dance studio, somewhere." Ah. Try this, then:

"Where was the studio you went to?" I asked her, still casually.

"It was just around the corner from my mom's house. I used to walk there after school…" There it was. Now, she was afraid. Her heart rate increased and I was hit with a wave of fear from Alice, too. I glanced at her and she looked at me with worried eyes. I sent her a wave of calm and quickly looked back at Bella.

"Here in Phoenix, then?" I asked her, keeping my voice calm and subtly trying to calm her back down, too.

"Yes," she whispered. "Fifty-Eighth Street and Cactus."

Bella looked back at the drawing, this time with new eyes, as did Alice and I. Was the tracker coming to Phoenix, then? Where was the dark room? What was it? And what did Alice have to do with any of this? Did the tracker know, now, that Alice and I were the ones who had Bella?

"Alice, is that phone safe?" Bella asked suddenly. Alice and I both looked at her curiously. I could feel that Bella was worried about something, but that was to be expected. What surprised me was how protective she suddenly felt.

"Yes," Alice reassured Bella. "The number would just trace back to Washington."

"Then I can use it to call my mom."

"I thought she was in Florida," Alice said, confused.

"She is, but she's coming home soon, and she can't come back to the house while…" Bella's voice trembled, and all her emotions made perfect sense. She was afraid for her mother. Her father was protected, back in Forks, but, if the tracker encountered her mother…

"How will you reach her?" Alice inquired further.

"They don't have a permanent number except at the house. She's supposed to check her messages regularly."

"Jasper?" Alice asked my opinion. I was a little wary of allowing any calls to anyone but our family, but I did understand Bella's view. She had to keep her mother out of this. As long as Bella was careful about what she said, it probably wouldn't cause any problems. Bella felt so worried. I decided to consent.

"I don't think there's any way it could hurt. Be sure you don't say where you are, of course." Bella grabbed the phone eagerly. After dialing the number quickly, she left her message:

"Mom, it's me. Listen, I need you to do something. It's important." Alice wrote down the phone number for Bella to give to her mother on the edge of her drawing, while Bella spoke. "As soon as you get this message, call me at this number." Bella read the number aloud, twice. "Please don't go anywhere until you talk to me. Don't worry, I'm okay, but I have to talk to you right away, no matter how late you get this call, alright? I love you, Mom. Bye." Bella closed her eyes when she hung up, and the worry and protective love coming from within her spiked. I didn't say anything, nor did I try to sedate her. Feeling the way she was about her human mother was, at least, more rational than worrying about us, in the same way.

The following hours passed relatively uneventfully. Alice and I feigned interest in what was on TV while Bella sat on the couch and ate some leftover fruit from her earlier meal. After an hour or so, she returned to her fidgeting and pacing. When her foot caught on the edge of a throw blanket on the sofa, though, causing her to trip, Alice made her sit back down while I tried not to laugh. Alice actually did snicker a bit, but I don't think Bella noticed.

The sun was barely beginning to set when Bella fell asleep on the couch. Alice carried her back to her bed, then, before coming back out to sit with me. She reached up to run her fingertips along the shadows under my eyes. "How are you holding up, Jazz?"

"I'm okay," I said. "Better than I expected I would be, at his point. You?"

"Nothing unmanageable," she said. I frowned.

"That's what you said to Bella, this morning. You can do better than that, with me."

"I've gone longer without hunting. We all have, including you. You've got to give yourself more credit, Jazz. You're doing very, very well. Bella smells really good, and she's been scared a few times, today. And the thought of hurting her hasn't even crossed your mind, since we left, has it?"

"I suppose not," I said. "I did hold my breath for a little while, when you were having that vision. She was so close, and what was happening was frightening her, a little. I didn't, technically, think of hurting her, though. I was more focused on you, and I was able to breathe, after a minute or two… But I haven't been near enough to any of the humans in this hotel besides Bella to catch their scents. Not since we first checked in, anyway…"

"You'll be fine," Alice said firmly, putting a finger to my lips to keep me from objecting. "You're not going to hurt anyone, Jasper. No humans, at least. You're in control of yourself. You'll be fine." I kissed the finger still against my lips and Alice smiled, drawing her hand away.

"Your faith in me is never-ending," I said. Alice leaned into my chest and I wrapped my arms around her.

"Never," she murmured. Alice and I simply sat like that several hours, saying nothing to each other, but communicating perfectly well with the help of my gift. She would send waves of love and contentment towards me, and I would absorb and return them. For us, it was the equivalent of making love without actually doing the physical act. It was peaceful and tender. The physical act added physical pleasure, of course, but that wasn't always necessary for Alice and me. We could easily spend hours simply loving each other like this, and we did. It was almost two o'clock in the morning when Alice suddenly stiffened in my arms and her eyes went out of focus.

"What is it, Alice?" I asked her, pulling her around to face me directly. "Is it the tracker?"

"Yes."

"Where is he? What's changed?"

"The dark room where he was playing the VCR. It's light, now."

"What does the room look like?" I pressed.

"It's the inside of a house. It might be a hotel room, but the décor is too eclectic. It looks like a small living room. There's the VCR, the TV, a couch, a fireplace… The tracker is in there…" Alice came out of the vision, then, and she immediately grabbed the pencil and the notepad from the coffee table. She flipped to a new page and started drawing the newly light room. I realized, then, that Bella was awake. I could hear her stumbling out of bed, back in her room. When I thought about it, Alice and I hadn't been speaking very quietly when she was having the vision. Not for us, anyway. Our voices probably woke Bella.

Though I kept my eyes on Alice's work, I was aware of Bella coming up beside me, trying to move quietly. She sat on the arm of the long sofa, looking at Alice's drawing, herself. "Did she see something more?" She asked me quietly.

"Yes," I told her. "Something's brought him back to the room with the VCR, but it's light now." Bella was quiet then, as she watched Alice sketch the room. As the picture became more detailed though, I felt Bella become more and more fearful, beside me: Paneled wood walls and a low ceiling. Curiosity. Patterned carpet and a large window on the south wall. Worry. A stone fireplace and a TV and VCR on a too-small wooden stand. Fear and intense worry. An aged sectional sofa and a small coffee table in front of it. Terror and devastating sadness. I was about to ask her what was wrong when she reached out her arm, pointing at a small table near the window in the picture.

"The phone goes there," she whispered. Alice and I both stared at her.

"That's my mother's house," she almost whimpered.

Alice was off the couch in an instant, grabbing the phone and dialing Carlisle's number. Bella's heart was pounding and her breathing was shallow. She was almost hyperventilating and her already pale skin had gone as pale as ours. She was having a panic attack. I slid closer to her and I felt her surprise when I reached out and touched her shoulder. She wasn't aware of the fact that I'd done the same thing during our first night, here. To her, this was the first time I had ever physically touched her. It took quite a bit of focus to send enough of my calming influence into her to bring her down out of her panic attack. At the same time, though, I tried to not affect her too much. Using my full power on her might only frighten her more. I tried to strike a balance with her while Alice told Carlisle of this new development.

"Bella," Alice said after a minute. She was no longer on the phone. Bella looked at her somewhat numbly. "Bella, Edward is coming to get you. He and Emmett and Carlisle are going to take you somewhere, to hide you for a while."

"Edward is coming?" Bella said, and she came a little farther out of her panic by her own doing. Good girl. That's it. It will be okay…

"Yes, he's catching the first flight out of Seattle," Alice said. "We'll meet him at the airport, and you'll leave with him." But Bella lost the little sense of relief she'd just gained.

"But, my mother… He came here for my mother, Alice!" My hand was still on Bella's shoulder, and I was still trying to calm her, but her hysteria broke through my influence and saturated her voice.

"Jasper and I will stay 'till she's safe," Alice tried to reassure her. It didn't work.

"I can't win, Alice. You can't guard everyone I know forever. Don't you see what he's doing? He's not tracking me at all. He'll find someone. He'll hurt someone I love… Alice, I can't... "

"We'll catch him, Bella," Alice said. That didn't work either.

"And what if you get hurt, Alice?" Of course, she had to go there. And she didn't even know that the tracker, somehow, knew Alice. "Do you think it's only my human family he can hurt me with?" Alice looked pointedly at me and I let loose on Bella, hitting her with enough lethargy to put her to sleep in seconds. Her eyes closed for a moment, but then she realized what I was doing to her and she recoiled from my touch, standing up and stepping away from me.

"I don't want to go back to sleep," she snapped irritably and she stormed back into her room, slamming the door behind her. Neither Alice nor I followed her. We just listened to her falling onto the bed and crying. Whimpering and tossing. The feelings pulsing out of her even made me shift uncomfortably. My earlier fury was returning. This tracker really was a ruthless force to be reckoned with. If he couldn't get to Bella directly, he planned to tear her world apart around her. I hadn't encountered such merciless behavior since my time fighting in the newborn armies, and, I had to admit, I was glad to find how much it sickened me, now. I really had come a long way, since that horrible time. Maria would be disappointed in the heart I'd grown, not that it hampered my fighting skill. James would get a good taste of that, before this was over.

It took me about an hour to steel myself to deal with humans other than Bella, but, when I felt ready, I turned to Alice: "You stay with Bella. I'll go check out. We'll need to move closer to Bella's mother's house, once she leaves with Edward." Alice nodded and I drew in a deep breath before I left the room. I held my breath the entire time I was in the lobby, just to be safe, not that I was paying much attention to the other humans around. My thoughts were elsewhere:

James, wherever you are, you've really crossed the line, now. You've gone too far, and you will burn for it. I promise you that.


	3. Little Sister

**Tracking**

**Chapter 3: Little Sister**

I was making my way back up to our suite a little too fast. Any human who saw me would be a little alarmed by my speed, but I was just too anxious to get back to Alice and Bella. It felt wrong to be away from them when I knew there was danger coming. I needed to be there to protect my wife and my little sister. I tried to calm myself down, telling myself that they were both fine. That proved difficult to believe, though, when I reached the hallway our suite was connected to.

"Alice?" That was Bella's voice, and she sounded worried. She sounded scared. What was worse was Alice's reaction to hearing Bella's voice. I felt it, even from this distance: If I hadn't just heard Bella's voice, I would have thought Alice was mourning her death. A wave of sadness and fear like no other I had ever felt from Alice hit me like a wrecking ball. I no longer cared about keeping up my human façade. I ran to the room at my full speed, thinking of nothing but Bella and Alice.

"Alice!" I called to her as soon as I had the door open. Bella was standing close to her, unharmed but radiating fear and sadness. Alice's emotions were similar, but more intense. She was bent over the desk, gripping the edge with her hands. A small part of my mind noted some sawdust on the floor below her. She was nearly breaking the wood with her grip. Her eyes were unfocused, and her face looked pained. Something had gone very wrong. I rushed over to her, coming up behind her and prying her hands of the desk. "What is it?" I asked her. She turned around and buried her face in my chest.

"Bella," She whimpered.

"I'm right here," Bella said. Alice turned her face back to Bella, in response, but she said nothing. Her pain only increased when she heard Bella's voice. What had happened? What about Bella… Bella's emotions changed abruptly.

"What did you see?" She asked Alice, but her voice was flat and apathetic. On the surface, she seemed to have shut down. On the inside, though, was the opposite: Guilt, fear, sadness, pain, despair, guilt, grief, guilt… What was she feeling so guilty about? I looked at her and she internally flinched, realizing what I'd caught her feeling. She quickly tried to smother her emotions, which brought my attention back to what was coming off of Alice: Sadness, guilt, fear, worry, grief… Wait a minute. Why was Alice feeling guilty, too? Not as much as Bella, but… What was going on? I looked back and forth between Bella and Alice, confused and unsure of what to do. I could only think of one thing.

I sent strong waves of tranquility out into the room, calming them both, but also trying not to smother their feelings entirely. Their feelings were evidence of what was happening, and I wasn't going to destroy that evidence completely until I knew what was going on. Alice came out of her vision.

"Nothing really," She answered my earlier question calmly. At least, that was how it sounded. She still felt anything but calm. This was a show for Bella. "Just the same room as before." She looked directly at Bella, then.

"Did you want breakfast?"

"No, I'll eat at the airport," Bella answered, also with false calm, though she also sounded convincing to the ear. She quickly turned on her heel and retreated to the bathroom. Guilt, guilt, guilt, sorrow… I turned back to Alice once I heard the water turn on in the shower. She dissolved into dry sobs.

"He's going to kill her, Jasper," she whispered to me. "I saw Bella with him in the ballet studio. Something's changed… We're going to lose her…" No! That couldn't be! I clutched Alice tightly against me.

"_We will not lose her, Alice_," I said. "Whatever has changed, we'll change it back. Bella is with us, she's safe…" Why was Bella feeling so guilty? "We won't let the tracker get to her. She'll be okay." She was so sad and fearful, too, almost as if she'd seen Alice's vision with her own eyes… What was I missing? I couldn't understand it. What had gone so horribly wrong within just these last few hours?

"I don't understand it," Alice whimpered helplessly. "Even the problem with her mother was somewhat resolved. She's going to stay in Florida…"

"Her mother called back?" I asked her, pulling away from her a little, so I could look in her eyes. She nodded.

"While you were downstairs. She called and talked to Bella. She sounded worried, when I answered the phone. Bella went into the bedroom to talk to her. When she came out, she told me her mother wanted to come home, but that she'd convinced her to stay in Florida… She looked awful when she came back out of that room, though… Numb, almost…"

"Did Bella say anything else about it?" I asked intently. Apparently, Bella's strange behavior began as soon as I left the room. I knew I should have stayed with her and Alice. I knew it!

"She wrote a letter to her mother and asked me to leave it in her house, for her mother to find," Alice said. The tone of her voice matched her emotions, then: That request confused her a little.

"It could be that she's just worried about her mother," I said, trying to convince myself as well as Alice. "When she was in here, a moment ago, she was feeling very guilty about something, as well as feeling sad and afraid. She's probably upset that her mother was brought into all this, just as she is about our involvement. As absurd as it is, we know she blames herself for what's happening, now…" Alice laughed darkly. The sound surprised me. I wasn't used to such a bleak sound coming form my Alice.

"Right. She blames herself for the danger _we're_ in, but we're going to fail in protecting _her_."

"We will _not_ fail," I growled determinedly. I pulled Alice back to me, again, and hugged her close. "That tracker is _not_ going to kill our little sister. She's ours, and we're going to protect her. We'll save her." Alice looked up at me and smiled despite herself.

"That's the first time you've called her that, out loud," she said "I know you've been thinking of her that way for a little while, now. That's just the first time you've said it. Hm… I suppose I haven't said it aloud, either… I've been thinking of her that way since Edward first met her, though; since I had that vision of her…" Alice's smile faded, again, and her voice took on a melancholy tone. "I couldn't stand to lose her, now, Jazz. She _is_ our little sister. I don't…"

"We'll figure this out, Alice," I reassured her, once more. I could hear the water in the bathroom turning off, though, and I knew Bella would be coming out soon. "We can't let her hear us talking like this." Alice nodded in agreement.

When Bella came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, the emotional wall she had clearly thrown up disturbed me. I caught flickers of her earlier emotions; the fear, sadness, and guilt, but they were fleeting. Any time they became strong enough for me to clearly define, she would smother them. She continually forced herself to be as apathetic and numb as she could manage. And it had me worried. She finished getting ready quickly, as did Alice and I. It would be clear to anyone observing us, though, that all three of our minds were elsewhere. I found myself wishing Edward was already here, to hear what I could not. Unfortunately, I realized even that wouldn't do much good. Bella's thoughts were always closed to Edward.

We left the hotel by about seven o'clock. Once we were in the car, Bella's emotional wall started breaking down. She was still trying to keep herself calm, but she was no longer having so much success. She was very anxious as she sat alone in the back seat. Alice was twisted around in the passenger seat next to me. Her back was against the door on her side, and she was facing me, while constantly shooting glances at Bella. She wasn't wearing a seatbelt. It was rare that any of us did. We didn't really have to worry about getting hurt in a car accident. The lack of binding served an added purpose this time, though: Alice was half-tensed and had one foot planted firmly against the floor in front of her seat, so she could launch herself into the back seat at a moment's notice. Bella continued feeling very anxious until she finally spoke. She, once again, fought to smother any emotion, then:

"Alice?" She asked indifferently. Alice shot me a furtive glance, instantly wary. I shook my head infinitesimally, telling her I had no idea what Bella might be about to ask.

"Yes?" Alice responded cautiously.

"How does it work? The things that you see?" Bella asked. Her voice made her sound bored and distant, but I could feel faint emotions that she was trying to suppress: Wariness, fear, guilt, anxiety, determination… "Edward said it wasn't definite…" She struggled to say Edward's name. There was a sharp pang of terrible sadness and guilt within her. I threw a wave of serenity throughout the car. Bella threw up another emotional wall when she felt my reaction to her slip. She continued speaking in a detached tone: "That things change?" I clenched the steering wheel reflexively. Bella had no idea how much we were hoping things would change.

"Yes, things change…" Alice murmured, sounding hopeful. The intonation was probably distinct enough for even Bella's ears to catch. For some reason, it made a wave of guilt slip through her emotional barricade. "Some things are more certain than others," Alice continued, "like the weather. People are harder. I only see the course they're on while they're on it. Once they change their minds make a new decision, no matter how small the whole future shifts."

"So you couldn't see James in Phoenix until he decided to come here," Bella said flatly. Her monotony made Alice wary, again.

"Yes," she answered simply. Someone shot a cannonball through Bella's emotional wall, then. Guilt was the first and most prominent emotion to break through. It struck me hard. Then there was fear, anticipation, regret, and frail but immobile determination. That strange combination of emotions flooded out of Bella, but she caught herself quickly. She patched up the hole in her defensive wall and struggled to keep it intact for the rest of the short ride to the airport.

Once we stopped in the parking garage, Bella was a machine. She climbed quickly out of the car and, once we had her luggage out of the trunk, she led the way to the third floor of the airport. Edward's plane was landing in terminal four. When we got to the passenger unloading area for that terminal, I had to hold my breath. I was thirsty and this part of the airport was very crowded with humans. I tried to ignore them and remain focused on Bella. With so many people around, it would be more difficult to see an attacker approaching, making the area more dangerous for her. I seriously doubted James would show himself in here, but I was still more alert as I sat beside Bella in the waiting area. Alice sat on her other side.

Every slight shift Bella made in her seat made Alice and I look at her almost instinctively. As ironic as it was, Alice and I were almost in our predatory hunting mode while we guarded the human between us. We kept our acute senses especially sharp, and Bella's every movement caused a predator's reaction in us: If the prey flees, the drive to pursue only increases. Not that Bella was our prey, in this case. She was prey to a different hunter, though, and we would not let him take her without a fight.

Alice offered to take Bella to one of the few airport cafés for breakfast several times as we waited, but Bella continually declined, even when I was able to hear her stomach growl in hunger. Any emotions Bella let slip to me were haywire. Guilt and fear were ever-present, but all of her other emotions seemed to be at war with each other: Determination versus indecision, fear versus courage, guilt versus acceptance, grief versus relief, love versus detachment… It was maddening! At one point, she gave Alice the letter she'd written to her mother and the guilt she was feeling flared to inferno. Finally, when there was only thirty minutes left before Edward's arrival, the numbers on the arrival board changed: His plane was ten minutes early… And Bella panicked.

"I think I'll eat now," she said quickly, standing up and starting to walk away even before Alice answered:

"I'll come with you," she said, and she quickly stood up to follow Bella. Bella's panic increased. She turned back around and looked wild-eyed at Alice. She seemed to think about something for a second. Then, she looked at me.

"Do you mind if Jasper comes, instead?" She asked Alice. "I'm feeling a little…" Alice felt a little confused by Bella's request, but I was already up. I was half expecting Bella to, quite literally, explode form all the conflicting emotions running through her fragile little body. If she was willing to let me help her with that, I wasn't going to discourage her.

She certainly didn't recoil from my touch, when I placed my hand on the small of her back, to strengthen my influence on her. We walked through the crowded airport that way; my hand remaining on her back as if I were merely guiding her through the crowd. We walked silently. She didn't even look at me. Her eyes scanned the few airport cafés as we walked, but none of them seemed to catch her interest. That was when it hit:

Not only did physical contact with Bella strengthen my ability to affect her, but it made her emotions stronger to me. In one instant, the strange variety of emotions I'd been detecting in her all day poured out, all at once: Guilt, fear, sadness, pain, despair, grief, wariness, fear, guilt, anxiety, determination, anticipation, regret, indecision, fear, courage, acceptance, grief, love detachment, guilt… I flinched and almost pulled my hand away from her. I nearly growled at her to stop, but I restrained myself. Bella had no idea, of course, that she was emotionally torturing me. Even without that knowledge, though, she broke our physical connection herself: She stepped away from my hand and looked at me inquiringly… Or, was it pleadingly?

"Do you mind?" She asked. She gestured toward a women's restroom a few feet away from where we stood. "I'll just be a moment." I hesitated for a fraction of a second. I wasn't really okay with letting Bella out of my sight. It seemed safe enough, though. I would be right here by the door. I would see everyone who came in or out, and humans _did_ have needs…

"I'll be right here," I assured her. She gave me a strangely sad smile and walked into the restroom. Though I'd been holding my breath up until that point, as a precaution amongst so many humans, it hampered my senses too much. I couldn't see Bella, now, so I couldn't afford to hinder my other senses. I slowly took in a breath. A wildfire began its rampage through my throat and I felt the instinctive pooling of venom in my mouth. There were so many humans here… And they were all so close… The monster in me roared in frustration when I didn't instantly submit to my predatory instincts. _Bella. Alice. My little sister. My wife. Edward's soul mate. My soul mate._ I chanted those words in my head until it cleared… Until I could focus on something other than blood.

I took in a few more careful breaths and I looked at the restroom door. A couple minutes had passed… Where was she? Thirty more seconds… I moved closer to the door. When a teenage girl with blonde hair walked past me, going inside, I chanced a deliberately deep breath. Bella's scent was inside… No. It wasn't. It was there, but it was too faint. Bella wasn't…

"Jasper!" Alice shouted desperately, forcing her way through the crowd of humans as quickly as she could without causing too much of a scene. The fact that she was carrying her bag and Bella's so easily wasn't really helping, but she really didn't care, in that moment. "She's running!" She shouted as she neared me. When she reached my position by the door, she pulled it wide open, almost yanking it clean off its hinges in her desperation. That was when I saw it… Another door. A different exit from the restroom. Alice bolted inside the restroom without another word. She was out the other door in less than a second. I set off on an alternate route.

I ran through the crowd at my full speed, too fast for any of the humans to recognize me as anything more than a passing draft. I tore through the airport until I picked up Bella's trail by the luggage carousel. I followed it all the way out the main exit and outside. I came to an abrupt halt. Alice was already there, standing on the edge of the sidewalk where hotel shuttles and taxis were lined up, waiting for passengers. I didn't need to feel her emotions to know what she was feeling. Her face wore a mask of grief I had never seen mar her features before. I came up beside her and sniffed at the air. Bella's scent was gone.

"Why?" I whispered. "_Why_?" That was all I could ask.

Alice sniffed as if she were crying. "I didn't see it until... I didn't realize…" Alice sniffed unnecessarily, again, and a dry sob escaped from her chest. She reached in her bag and handed me the letter Bella had written to her mother. It had been opened. "I saw her talking to him on the phone, in her mother's house. She asked if her mom was alright, then she told him she was alone…. Then, she said, 'Yes. I know how to get there.' Then, she was running to the ballet studio…" I opened the letter. It was splashed with tears that smelled like Bella, and she'd written a short message on it, not to her mother, but to Edward…

Edward,

I love you. I am so sorry. He has my mom, and I have to try. I know it may not work. I am so very, very sorry.

Don't be angry with Alice and Jasper. If I get away from them it will be a miracle. Tell them thank you for me. Alice, especially, please.

And please, please don't come after him. That's what he wants, I think. I can't bear it if anyone has to be hurt because of me, especially you. Please, this is the only thing I can ask you now. For me.

I love you. Forgive me.

Bella.

"I think that's what the phone call was… Why it scared her so much…" Alice whispered. "It wasn't just her mother… It was James…" All the emotions that had seemed so strange, coming from Bella, now made perfect sense. Guilt had been the prominent emotion because her mother was in danger and she'd been planning to run away from us. The intense sadness and grief, because she knew she was hurting us, that her mother might be hurt or killed, and that she was going to die. The fear, because she was afraid of running to meet her death, but also terrified that we would stop her from doing just that. The indecision was to be expected in that position, of course. The love came from her thoughts of us, of Edward, and of her mother. Finally, the determination, acceptance, and courage were all for the same reason: She was set in her plans. She had decided to sacrifice herself for her mother…

"I was right there!" Alice suddenly half-shrieked. My eyes snapped back to her in alarm. "I was right _there_ and he was _talking_ to her! He was convincing her to come to him! Why didn't I stop it? Why didn't I _see_?" I clamped a hand over her mouth to stop her screaming, and I looked straight into her eyes while I planned on the fly:

"We can still save her, Alice," I said quickly. "Her and her mother, hopefully. We know where she's going. She gave us the address of the studio, before: Fifty-Eighth Street and Cactus. We have to move quickly though. If James decides to kill her quickly, we might be too late, but we'll at least get him back for it, then."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Edward's voice suddenly hissed from behind us. We both turned to see him standing behind us with Carlisle and Emmett flanking him. Edward had clearly already gotten the entire story from our heads. There was no question in his face, just pure fury. I could only hope it would all be vented on James, leaving little to none for me and Alice, not that we didn't deserve it. Carlisle and Emmett looked worried and confused, but they didn't dare take the time to ask questions while Edward was in such a state. They were liable to lose an arm if they did.

Carlisle's Mercedes wouldn't do, in this situation. We all knew that much without any of us saying a word. We all darted into the parking garage and searched until we found a faster ride. Edward easily broke into the car and we all piled in as the engine growled in synch with Edward. While Edward drove furiously, Alice and I filled Carlisle and Emmett in on everything that had happened… On everything that had gone so terribly wrong. When we came to the end of our explanation, Alice froze and gasped. All of us but Edward turned to look at her pained expression while she had the vision. Edward let out a noise that was a combination of a sob and a growl when he saw it in her head:

"He's not killing her quickly," Alice whimpered in a way that made my hard skin crawl, as she came out of the brief vision. "I saw him throwing her into the mirrors… There's going to be a lot of blood…" Alice made a horrified gagging sound before adding, "He's recording it all on a video camera, too…"

"Jasper, Emmett, hold your breath when we get there," Carlisle instructed, his voice maintaining its usual calm authority, though his expression and the emotions coming from him were pained. "You'll need to stay focused, to take care of James."

"That isn't going to be a problem," Emmett growled. He was almost as furious as Edward, at this point.

"I'm not kidding about the blood, Emmett. Hold your breath!" Alice snapped. Emmett growled again, but I knew it wasn't at Alice. He was livid that James was hurting Bella so badly. He tended to get that way when it came to his family. I knew without him saying it that he already thought of Bella as his little sister, too. James was going to pay dearly for harming her. Emmett and I would both see to that.

"There it is," Edward's voice was a low and deadly hiss. We all looked out the car windows to see the ballet studio that would go up in flames, before this was over. The emotions that filled the car were overwhelming: Fierce determination, protectiveness, and love reigned above all else. There were other, subtler notes, too: Carlisle's compassion for Edward and Bella, both… His emotions were simultaneously fatherly and humble. He admired Bella's courage and Edward's love for her. Emmett, beneath his eagerness for the coming fight, was also admiring… I became aware of one particular way he felt kinship with Bella: She was inside that ballet studio in defense of someone she loved, as we all would soon be. Alice was gushing love and anxiety… Bella had so quickly come to mean so much to her. Edward's emotions were, truly, beyond words… Love, admiration, fury, sorrow, adoration, determination. None of those words did his feelings justice, but they were the best I could come up with.

"Focus, Jasper," Edward ordered as he pulled up by the studio. I dragged myself above the sea of emotions and let myself fall, instead, into my old self: The lethal vampire soldier from the southern wars. I held my breath and leapt out of the car, Emmett following close behind. Edward was already inside. I heard him roar in fury.

I was immensely glad that I was holding my breath, when Emmet and I charged inside. As focused as I was on tearing James to shreds, just the _sight_ of all the recently spilled blood broke my focus for a fraction of a second. It was on the mirrors, on the floor, on scattered shards of glass. Bella, herself, was covered in it, where she lay broken on the floor. James was covered in her blood, too. _That_ was what I focused on. Emmett and I both growled viciously and lunged at James, ripping him apart quickly, scarcely aware of what Edward, Carlisle, and Alice were saying as they tended to Bella.

The first time any of their voices broke through my concentration was when I was tearing up floorboards to start the fire that would burn the pieces of James: "My hand is burning!" Bella's voice screamed. "The fire! Someone stop the fire!" My mind refused to process that plea entirely. I was still in fighting mode. _No. Start the fire. Don't stop it. Start the fire. Burn the pieces. Burn the enemy. But, the human… Blood… Everywhere… No! Burn! Burn the pieces! Thirsty… Fight!_

"Jazz, move!" Emmett growled. That caught my attention. He had a gas can in hand. He was spilling it around the room, covering James' scattered remains. I saw some pieces trying to reassemble themselves and I pounced on them, breaking them into smaller pieces while Emmett soaked the floorboards I'd pulled up in gasoline, preparing to start the fire…

"He bit her." Carlisle's voice. Somehow, those words broke through my concentration, too. _He bit the human. He tasted the blood… All that blood… Everywhere… Thirsty… It burns so much…_

"Jasper, focus!" Emmet hissed through clenched teeth. He was struggling, too. _Bella. Our little sister. Burn James! _Emmet and I had the fire started soon after that. What was happening between Edward, Bella, Carlisle, and Alice only caught my attention once more, as Emmett and I tossed the last pieces of James into the quickly spreading flames: Edward… Was… Drinking… Bella's… Blood… _Blood…_

All of a sudden, a surprisingly strong little pixie crashed into me. "Jasper!" She called to me. "Jasper, let's go. Move, Jazz. Please!" It was Alice._ Alice. My Alice. She needs me._ Alice pushed against me, again, and I faltered back a step. Emmett appeared beside me then. I felt his own strain radiating off him as he gripped my arms and helped Alice pull me back. He didn't say anything. He was holding his breath, and he couldn't risk breathing to talk. I was still holding my breath, too, but my thirst still raged on. _No. You can control it. For Alice. For Edward. For Bella. Turn around. Get away from it. Turn around and run._ And I did. I turned away from the blood and I ran out of the ballet studio with Emmett and Alice. It was finally dark outside.

"She's okay, Jazz," I gradually became more and more aware of Alice's voice, again. "She's in pretty bad shape, but she'll live. Her mother never was here. James tricked her. He bit her, but Edward sucked the venom back out. She won't change and she's alive. Bella will be okay…" We did it. We saved our little sister, and the tracker was gone forever. He would never hunt again. It was over, until…

"Bella said the tracker mentioned me on the tape he made," Alice said to me as we ran into the night. It was only then that I noticed the video camera in one of her hands. "He knew me when I was human. He mentioned what happened to me…" This wasn't over, yet.


	4. Beauty and the Beast

**Tracking**

**Chapter 4: Beauty and the Beast**

**A/N: Last chapter for this story. Short, but sweet (and sad). I hope you like it. Please leave a review, and don't forget to read my other fics. Enjoy! P.S. This chapter gets a theme song: "Light On" by David Cook (since I kept thinking of that song, while writing this chapter). :)**

A few days had passed, and Bella had yet to wake. Edward never left her room in the hospital, and Carlisle dropped in often, assessing her condition, himself, whenever the human doctors in the hospital weren't looking. The two of them were planning to stay with Bella until she could return home, to Forks. Alice, Emmett, and I were a different story. We couldn't stand remaining in Phoenix much longer. It was much too sunny, and animals we could hunt at night were scarce. We had to leave. We dropped by the hospital for one more visit, on our way out, though.

The second we were in Bella's room, Alice was in the bed with her, stroking her hair and whispering, "Wake up, Bella. I know it's not time, yet. I saw you waking up tomorrow, but please… Please wake up, Bella?" I flinched at the emotions coming off of her. The love she felt for Bella was staggering. And the desperation… I don't think she'd ever wanted a human to simply look at her so badly. I started internally pleading with Bella, myself; begging her to open her eyes and ease some of Alice's pain… At least _some_ of it…

"Esme's not going to take 'Beauty and the Beast' well," Edward warned me softly from the chair in the corner of the room. "She's going to need your help." I nodded once. Alice, Emmett, and I had refrained from destroying the tracker's videotape, if only so Esme and Rosalie could see it, themselves. Of course, none of us really wanted to subject either of them to watching it. We all knew the experience was excruciating: Watching the tracker beat and break Bella was bad enough. Hearing him talk about how he'd nearly done that to Alice, while she was human, was enough to make even a vampire nauseous.

I was still unsure of how, exactly, we'd all come to refer to the video as 'Beauty and the Beast'. I think Emmett started it. However it had come to be, though, the title was fitting. Bella's name did mean 'beautiful', after all, and the 'beast' in the video was obvious. I suppressed a growl. Not only had the beast harmed Bella, but he'd attempted to harm Alice, once. My Alice. The thought made me want to reassemble James from his ashes, if only so I could tear him to shreds, again. At least one good thing came from watching that revolting video, though: Some light had finally been shed on the mystery that was Alice's human life. Light… When all she could remember was dark…

She's been confined in an asylum, because of her future visions. Even as a human, she'd been having those visions. Darkness was all she could remember, because that was all she saw, locked up in a dark room for most of her human life. Somehow, though, her confinement had not protected her from James' thirst. He'd hunted her, and she'd only been spared from Bella's fate or worse by yet another vampire. One who had worked _inside_ the asylum. He'd changed her to save her from her captivity and from the tracker… Edward growled softly and I looked at him to see him glaring back at me. _You know I'm not thinking about you!_ I mentally snapped at him. _Don't be ridiculous, Edward. In spite of what James said about you not changing Bella, none of us blame you for what happened to her, and you shouldn't blame yourself, either! What happened is on one's fault but the tracker's, and he's gone! _Edward let out another low growl.

"Stop it, you two," Alice hissed from Bella's side. "Whatever you're mentally arguing about, just stop it!"

"Easy, Alice," Emmett warned, walking over to her and squeezing her shoulder lightly. "We've all been about a week without hunting, now, and we're all worried about Sleeping Beauty, too." It must have been Emmet who started the fairy tale references. "Come on. The sooner we all get out of here and start shaking this off, the better off we'll all be." Alice looked back at Bella longingly, but she nodded. Then she looked at me.

"Why don't you wait here, while Emmett and I get the car, Jasper?" She said, sounding weary in spite of the fact that vampires don't get tired. "This side of the building is secluded enough, and it's dark out, so you can jump out the window when we pull up outside. That way, you don't have to walk through the whole hospital, again. If it's easier?" I nodded mutely. I had been holding my breath since we arrived at the hospital. I avoided hospitals, as a rule, even when my eyes weren't pitch black with thirst. Too many humans and too much blood. I had made an exception, coming to visit Bella like this, but it was a risk. Being here only made me marvel that much more at Carlisle's restraint. To actually _work_ in a hospital… I shuddered at the thought. Alice and Emmett left the room, then, leaving me and Edward alone with Bella.

I moved toward Bella's bed slowly, cautiously. I could feel Edward watching me closely, but he could tell I was in control, so he made no move to stop me. When I reached Bella's bedside, the first thing I looked at was the bandage on her right hand. My thirst flared at the image that came to mind: Bella lying in a pool of her own blood while Edward sucked more blood from her hand, drawing the venom back out of the bite, there. _How did you do it, Edward? How did you stop?_

"I almost didn't," Edward murmured darkly. "Her blood is so potent to me, and it tasted even better than I'd imagined… I almost killed her. The tracker started it, but I almost finished the job. But, I didn't. I couldn't do that to her, as much as I love her. I love her more than anything… That's how I did it."

I moved my gaze from Bella's hand to her face and I felt an almost irresistible urge to reach out and touch her. I resisted that urge, though. Standing so close to her was difficult enough. Feeling her warmth under my hand would tempt me too much._ Staying with her for those few days was helping me. I could tell. I was growing desensitized to her scent. After seeing her in the studio, though… Her blood was everywhere… I'll have to go back to keeping my distance from her, again. Any progress I made here was lost, that day. _I looked up at Edward and he merely nodded in agreement. That stung a little… His distrust. I was the one who had brought it up, though, so I couldn't complain.

_At least it will be better when she's one of us. I have to say, I love her, Edward. All of us do. She's really good for our family._ I was a little startled when Edward hissed. He was glaring at me, again.

"She is good for the family, but she will _not_ become one of us," he said firmly. "_No one_ is changing her." For some reason, hearing Edward say that made me absolutely furious. I stepped away from Bella's bed, as a precaution, before I turned on him.

"And why not?" I hissed aloud. "Did you not hear me, Edward? We _all_ love her. And you just said you love her more than anything. If that's true, then why are you so insistent on leaving her human? You know that's not what _she_ wants! She wants to be able to stay with you forever. Why won't you let her?"

"_I will not end her life,_" Edward growled lowly. "Bella_ thinks_ she wants this, but she has no idea what she's asking for."

"She knows more about vampires than some vampires do!" I retorted, using the last of my breath. I had to finish my argument in my head: _Edward, she's perfect for you! She's perfect for our family! She's kind and loving, and she's so brave and strong. Unbelievably so._

"_Exactly_!" Edward snapped. "She's perfect. I will _not_ change such an angel into a monster!" Edward's voice softened and he looked over at his 'angel'. The anger in his face faded, then, to be replaced by an ancient mask of sadness. "I will not turn the beauty into a beast. I really don't deserve her, the monster I am, myself… She deserves better than me… Better than all of us. Her mother is planning to ask her to move to Florida with her. I'm going to tell Bella that she should go… That she should get away from us, from me… So I can't hurt her anymore…"

I stared at Edward, dumbstruck, even in my thoughts. Did he seriously just say that? He's going to send Bella away? _NO!_ I recovered quickly. _NO! Are you insane? You can't send Bella away! She doesn't want to go! None of us want her to go! Alice and Esme will be devastated! NO! She loves you, Edward! Why can't you just accept that? We all have!_

"Enough, Jasper!" Edward growled threateningly, his anger returning as he glared balefully at me. "I'm not going to… Force… Bella to do anything. I'm going to talk to her about it, once she wakes up. It's between Bella and me, though."

"Jasper!" I heard Alice call from outside. I looked out the window to see her and Emmett waiting for me down on the ground. I felt torn, though. I couldn't leave Edward and Bella like this, not after what Edward had just told me.

"Go, Jasper," Edward said. I turned to look at him, alarmed by the tone of his voice and the emotions coming off him: He was looking at Bella with anguish in his eyes and his voice sounded lifeless and distant. His feelings were impossible to put into words. They were just unbearable; all conflicting and all vying for dominance. It was too much. I had to leave whether I wanted to or not. I was too thirsty and ill-equipped to handle such emotional torture. I leapt out the window, but not before sending one more thought Edward's way:

_Bella will never agree to that._

As I climbed into the waiting car with Emmett and Alice, I just barely heard his murmured response:

"I know."


End file.
